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The Cardinals are in the midst of a three-game stretch of primetime games — “Thursday Night Football” in San Francisco, “Monday Night Football” against the Jets early next week, and then a home “Sunday Night Football” game against the Seahawks. These games under the lights have been fairly good for the Cards, and it’s been suggested that this is a franchise that flourishes in such matchups.

To be sure, Bruce Arians has done a nice job in his tenure. The Cardinals are 8-3 in primetime games since Arians arrived in 2013, and that’s including the Seattle “SNF” loss in late 2014 when injuries — particularly at quarterback — undercut that matchup before it even arrived.

But the Cardinals have also been a good team under Arians, and, as with most situation, the Cardinals do well under the lights when the team is good — and struggle when the team isn’t as good.

Starting with the University of Phoenix Stadium era — the 2006 season — the Cards have played a total of eight “Monday Night Football” games and 12 games on either Sunday or Thursday night. Their overall record? 10-10. Last year’s excellent team went 5-0 in such games, just another ancillary highlight from a fantastic season. It doesn’t mean there weren’t other memorable nights, win or lose — like the Monday Night Meltdown, how Derek Anderson takes certain things serious, finding a way to beat the ageless Brett Favre or how one team is always 8-8 — but these days, it’s always about the result and how the Cardinals can improve their playoff chances.

Certainly, these next two games, even if they were played 9 a.m. on a Friday, will be crucial. The Cardinals are hoping their latest primetime run of six wins of their last seven carries over.

This game has “season turn around” written all over it. I SOOOOO hope to see them get back to their 2015 primetime ways on Monday Night.

I think we will see pretty early on where Carson Palmer is on Monday Night, and that is critical because we are not bouncing back until / unless he does.

But I DO remember the game against Cincy last year where he really was not sharp in the first half, then the man just went totally OFF in the 3rd quarter. He was also brilliant on the last drive when we had to have it.

C’mon, Carson. You gotta FIND IT, buddy. Because WE need to find it and we ain’t gonna find it until you do!

So if we’ve played 8 MNF games and 13 SNF/TNF games since 2006, how is our record during that span come out to 10-9? That only suggests we’ve played 19 games, but 8 + 13 is 21 games. Or am I missing something?

Carson you can led us t victory if you want too just have to calm down and want too. But to everyone on the cardinals team I’m tired of listening to All these Seahawks fans here in Sierra Vista cut you all down so take them out this season please the Seahawks have nothing on you so do not let them get a win this year on you please win both games

Yesterday was the first time I heard Arians say the deep balls might be on Palmer.
The receivers have had their share or the fault along with pass protection, but it hasn’t ever fallen on Palmer.

This lead to the guys on the radio (Gambo and Burns) to begin to question Palmer’s arm strength and if he is losing it. They point at the end of last year to this year, Palmer is coming back to earth.

I heard others say Palmer was never as good as last year indicated and 2015 was an outlier.

I , for one, don’t see any lose in velocity. I also saw Palmer play really well at the end of 2013, 2014 before season ending injury to go with his 2015, proving, under this offense, he is that good.

I think the issue is the fact that Palmer has not looked comfortable in the pocket and frustrated with receivers not running patterns correctly. The hits he has taken this year seems to have affected him. This is something he can get back, once he gets confidence in receivers and Oline again.

What say you? Is his arm losing velocity? Was 2015 just an outlier? Receivers and Line? Or something else?

I don’t see him losing arm strength, although I do wonder why he’s underthrown a couple of balls. Your theories may be right about the pocket. I will say, while I don’t know if 2015 was a straight outlier, expecting him to repeat a career season would probably be unrealistic, just like I didn’t think Cam Newton would be able to repeat his incredible season. They need to be better down the field. I’m writing about it Saturday. I love Burns and Gambo, but also they only watch games. Even in training camp, they are on the air and can’t watch practice. So I’m not sure how they would have that great of a comparison.

Hey, Scott H, I appreciate your passion, as being very insightful and cool, in calling out, so enthusiastically, our number one reason, a one Mr. Carson P., to either aspire into the eternal or to implode back into the silence of football mediocrity.

Keim, BA and the Oline coach must have a lot of faith in Wetzel. I could have sworn Keim would have brought in a more exp G. Guessing Iupati will be back after the Jet game to face I believe a more dominant Defense in Seattle. Maybe nothing good on the free agent market because if Watford is the starting RG for the rest of the year, leaves no depth on the bench.

jtdg ~ Darren ~ ~ As for looking for the causes of the Palmer INTs and incomplete passes, only he, BA and the receivers really know for sure. But, some of them are obvious if the pass rush is disruptive…he has had a penchant to occasionally panic vs just throwing the ball away…just to make something happen. It’s not good to dis your players in the media, though it happens.

You’ve already read my objections to those long balls under double and triple coverage…that’s always on Palmer.

If I were the Coach, I would consider placing Palmer, the WRs, the TEs and maybe the RBs in a rubber room all by themselves and let them work thru getting on the same pages, and announce…””We have some solutions.”” ((Your left or my left? Your other left. Which way did he go?…said as a cartoon character!))

There’s been a lot of comments about Palmer losing “it” this season, starting in game one.
It’ll be interesting to see what Keim does after this season if Palmer continues to play marginally and the Cards miss the playoffs.
Will he just chock it up to an outlier or will he FINALLY bite the bullet and trade up in the draft for a “Franchise QB”?

And he is constantly throwing behind receivers instead of leading or hitting them in stride on crossing routes. Maybe his timing is off, or he doesn’t have the velocity to get the ball there quick enough.

I think most of the problem with the deep balls is how the play is executed if you take a look back at last year’s games most of the deep balls where off of play action and palmer would drop back fake a hand off and step up and bomb it and most of the time the receiver was open because everyone was afraid of c.j. who was running his tail off last year so when it was a good looking play action most of the secondary wood go flat footed just for a second and are fast receivers would get a step on them but this year most of the drop backs from Palmer he just drops straight back and d.j cuts out while Palmer has his eyes down fields the whole time and when there actually is a play action and fakes the hand off its so half a$$ and sloppy looking that the play just falls apart. Also stop the four Man rush Defense and blitz more or at least get everyone up too the line and fakeblitz than drop back if you want too we don’t even fill the box anymore are secondary is so far from the line that’s why we are getting runned on so much is because by the time we get up too the gaps the running back is already gone!! GO CARDINALS!!#

I THINK PALMER HAS A EXCELLENT GAME “ON MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL”.REVIS WILL BE COVERING LARRY SO I LOOK FOR FLOYD TO WAKE UP BIG TIME AS WELL AS BROWN AND DAVID JOHNSON(RUSHING AND CATCHING PASSES )OUR REVAMPED O-LINE WILL BE TESTED BUT I THINK THEY WIIL DO GOOD ENOUGH. CARDINALS DEFENCE WILL GET TO FITZPATRIC AND CAUSE FUMBLES AND INTERCEPTIONS!! GO CARDINALS!!!

Kevin S Mesa I sure hope you are right, but my gut tells me this will be a defensive game. Read something that we have not beaten the Jets since 1975. Do you believe that? We need to get this monkey off of our back, but main thing is get our 2016 record to 3 – 3. I watched the Jets play Pittsburgh last Sunday and their defense looked good, but their offense not so much. Hope we run a lot and play action pass a lot to keep the Jets off of Carson. Pittsburgh eventually wore down the Jets defense plus the Jets offense was bad that it did not give their defense much hope. The one thing I did notice is that the Jets had a lot of problems covering running backs so I hope Carson takes what the defense gives him and hits Johnson and Ellington a lot out of the backfield. If we can just follow Pittsburgh’s game plan and not turn over the ball I like our chances to get the win. We also need PP to keep up his stellar performance.

I actually heard the Cardinals have not beaten the Jets since JOE WILLIE NAMATH was their QB. My lord, can that actually be right??? I was 10 years old in 1975!! That was the year JAWS came out!! My all-time favorite movie, BTW. STAR WARS didn’t even exist yet!! We didn’t even know who the hell Harrison Ford was in 1975!!

So, we’re also fighting several decades worth of history on Monday Night as well, huh? Oh, whatever. Heck, if the Jets hadn’t beaten US since 1975, I’d still be worried about this game based on how the Cardinals have looked so far in 2016.

Man, seems to me our losses to the Jets in recent memory have just been painful. Losing to them again on Monday Night would probably be the most painful of them all if it happens.

Well, let’s be honest – right now, 2015 IS an outlier for Palmer. He never played that well up to that point, and he’s not played anywhere near as well in 2016. Therefore, by definition, 2015 is an outlier. That is why I have expressed recently that for Palmer, it is put-up or shut-up time. Is he more Kurt Warner or is he more Andy Dalton?

Hate to say it but so far….the answer is not Kurt Warner.

Palmer may have peaked and that might be all there is to it. I HOPE there is more, but….I wonder.

Darren – during 2015 training camp, we saw how extensively Palmer was working with the WR’s after he missed the 2nd half of the year in 2014. You tell us – were they just not working as hard this year??? Because our passing game has just been so off and….really, what else could explain that???

JTDG…
Very good points taken. I don’t think Palmer has lost velocity but rather has tired of taking the hard hits and suffering the injuries he’s had (concussions are a very scary thing) as a result of our young Oline and poorer blocking from our offense not named Larry Fitzgerald. Seems like he’s lost the passion and interest for playing since the birth of his last child (add kids to the equation and the stakes change), and I have to wonder if he’s not ready to pull a Kurt Warner and choose family over football? If actions speak louder than words, I think there is a lot the front office CHOOSES not to hear!
Of course, our front office never has seemed to learn from experience, and so have not felt the need to develop a Plan B, since he signed the extension?